Another good book swap.....

Ripstick Boy's swap box arrived last Thursday!

Jill picked Ripstick Boy to be her class's partner for One Good Book Swap.
But look at this...they even decorated the outside of the box!



This cool eye was right next to the address label.


He was sooooooo excited that he couldn't stand it.

Here he is with Brisingr.......

He has been DYING to buy this book with his own money and I kept making up excuses to put off buying it. He was REALLY getting suspicious.
When he saw the book in the box he said 'YOU KNEW ALL ALONG!"

He took the book with him Friday to school. He will have it finished by Saturday, I'm sure!

Here he is with one of Jill's favorite series called The Dragonriders of Pern.



I had to take a bunch of photos....quickly, as he was ripping through the box like a hurricane!

Here is a photo of the rest of all the goodies....actually there is more.....I didn't even SEE the dragon mask and other activites they sent until after I took the photos! He had ripped through them so fast that my head was spinning!
I love the book marks....especially the one that says:

"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!"

They gave him two of those....he took one to school already.

You can see what WE gave Jill's class here.

Jill, a huge thank you to you and your class. This swap really made Ripstick Boy's day!

1ST Annual pumpkin carving contest!

Now that the kids are old enough not to cut their arms and legs off, we decided to start having an annual pumpkin carving contest for the family.
My sister and her family did this for years and it got ultra competitive with people hiding in corners and covering their pumpkin with towels only to REVEAL their masterpieces all at once.

I am sure ours will get that way....but for this first time out, it was more of a gathering event...and a whole lot of fun!

Here we are working over our poor pumpkins....pulling all their little guts out! We had a nice bowl of seeds saved but they got dirty so we ditched them.



And here are our masterpieces!

mine.........Little Winky





Curly Girl's....Casper!




Ripstick Boy's.....Jackula




Dean's.....Cap'n Barbosa


BOO!

Mommy and Me Apron Swap!

Shawnee hosted this fun apron swap! We were to make a matching apron for a mother and child and include a vintage child's cookbook. I had a lot of fun putting this one together. After finding the fabric, I went with a mittens and angels theme.

I made two matching, reversible clothespin aprons. Ripstick Boy picked out the terrific cookbook....what a find. I never thought I'd find anything as cute as this cookbook locally.

After all, there is NO Half-Price Books in little Old Slidell......hint, hint.

reverse:

I looked EVERYWHERE for some mitten or angel buttons but no store had any.......so I opted for this little mitten charm instead.

I also couldn't find a mitten cookie cutter so instead, I sent angel and gingerbread man shapes.

I also made some cupcake toppers...angels and mittens of course!

Now on to what WE GOT!

Angelic sent us the best stuff ever! She ALSO made us reversible clothes pin aprons........great minds think alike!

I am showing one side off and Curly Girl the other.....PERFECTION!

I don't know HOW she knows we are major hot cocoa drinkers......
In the box was cocoa, some fixins like marshmallows, cinnamon sugar, cracked peppermints, personalized mugs and those cute measuring spoons that say 'dash' tad', etc. She made me a little cookbook of their favorite recipes....can't wait to try them.

We put it all to use IMMEDIATELY:

see the cinnamon sugar on top? YUM

Thank you Angelic!!!

Behold.....

The humble rice cooker........

I can't cook rice. My family didn't really EAT rice....we ate potatoes. I came from a long line of 'potato eaters.'

Wouldn't you know I would marry a rice eater. He came from a long line of 'rice eaters.'

My rice is horrible. Sticky and sometimes goopy....sometimes not cooked through....really nasty.

So about 10 years ago, while visiting my family for the holidays, I was griping about my lack of rice cooking skills.

My sister jumped up and went into the garage, when she came back in, she handed me this rice cooker, still in the box. She had gotten it for a gift.....but they never used it because they aren't rice eaters.

I was so excited. I didn't even know they made rice cookers.

Now I don't stress over cooking rice. This little baby makes perfect rice every time I use it...which is at least once a week.

So my question for you, dear readers? Rice or Potatoes? (and all you pasta lovers...don't worry...we eat pasta so much, it doesn't count!)

One Eighth German...

Last night I took the kids out to dinner. Dean is in Southbend for his annual coroprate meeting and I always try to do something fun with the kids, just the three of us one time while he is gone.

When I asked where they wanted to eat, they both chimed in "Olive Garden." They LOVE Olive Garden.
Ripstick Boy eats a full adult meal and Curly Girl eats herself silly with the salad and bread sticks. (yes, she is a salad eater like noone I've ever seen....)

Anyway, we go in, the hostess passes us off to a different host.....maybe the SEATER host.
Away we go, following host number 2.
When we sit down, the host tells us that our waitress will be along in a moment.

The waiter tells us about some specials and a new soup. Then he asks if I'd like wine....normally, yes but not when I'm driving precious cargo. So, I declined .
He took away 1 wine glass and started walking off.
I then joked and said something to the extent that since we didn't live in Europe, we wouldn't be needing the other 3 wine glasses either.
He stopped and turned and said "oh" and then 'yeah, those Europeans are something else, letting their kids drink'
(wha?)
I sort of looked up and said something to the affect that yes, children can drink over there but it isn't the same as regular wine or beer.
He stopped and looked and said 'Oh....you lived over there?" I said yes that I had lived in Germany as a child for a few years.

Then he sort of straightened up and I am not making this up, sort of cocked his head at me.... and sort of raised one eyebrow and then said 'Well, you know, I'm one-eighth German."

I said, oh, that's great. Then he sort of shook himself and said, "yeah, I don't know WHO in my family is actually GERMAN but someone along the line is.....
" I didn't hear the rest because I was busy watching my son making smarmy faces at me.
I started to get uncomfortable and luckily the waitress came up and sort of pushed him out of the way.

The kids were DYIN'.......all through dinner, I was hearing things like:
"You are soooo hot for an OLDER lady and since I'm ONE EIGHTH GERMAN, ya know."
and.....
"I dig older chicks, did I mention I'm ONE EIGHTH GERMAN?"
It even got to the point where Curly Girl was using forks and acting it all out. Ripstick Boy had the best zingers....tossing his hair and raising one eyebrow, using words like SWOON and SOPHISTICATION....and 'run away with me...' He also kept using the words OLDER.....what is THAT about?

Poor Dean, he is in Southbend while I'm getting hit on by a waiter who is 24 years old and one-eighth German.

Anticipation....

I have to get started on my Fall projects..........I have so MUCH to do....things to crochet, things to sew....

Aprons and pjs and slippers, OH MY!



But instead, I want to read THIS:





But I keep putting it off because it is the LAST BOOK in the series and I'm not ready to say goodbye.......



*sigh*

Janet...no PEEKING!

I participated in one last Halloween swap last week. It was a quickie!
This is what Janet sent me:

Lots of little goodies.........the hand is actually a pen...and check out the cute kitty pin!
The little bracelet and beanie baby got whisked away by Curly Girl. She would have snagged the pin too but I was WAY ahead of her and put it on before she could snatch it away!

You can't see the little jar of grape jelly Janet made and sent me in exchange for a Christmas apron!
Here is a photo of the apron. I thought since she makes jelly each year, this style would come in handy....though it doesn't photograph too well. I made the 4 pockets very large to hold spoons and other things she might need while canning.

Here is the rest of the loot I sent her.........the purple triangles are neckties for her 3 pooches to wear Halloween Eve. I stuffed EVERYTHING into the little Jack o' lantern, along with a Halloween poem.........hope she likes it.

BOO!